To Check for Pilot Data Differences

1. In Graphic Hub Manager, log on to the servers that you want to compare.

2. Click Pilot > Differences… to open the Pilot data differences window.

3. Select the servers to compare in the Overview section, then click Check for differences. This compares the Viz Pilot content on the selected servers, and you can now perform a manual backup or resolve potential cluster differences.

Understanding the Viz Pilot Data Differences Window

• Tables left/right (1): The two panes Tables left and Tables right show a listing of all database tables that are compared between the two servers.

• Overview (2): The Overview pane provides a quick overview of the differences between two servers:

  • Drop-down menu: If the Manager is logged on to more than two servers, all servers are selectable from the drop-down menus to the left and right of the Check for differences button.

  • Check for differences: Click to compare the selected servers. This initiates a checksum-based comparison of the table data between the servers. In the left and right panes, identical tables are marked with a green check mark icon. Tables that differ are marked with an orange warning icon. The Overview is populated with a summary of the differences. Any changes made after the last click are indicated by a counter, and a timer indicates the time passed since the latest change.

  • Lock/Unlock database: Click to lock or unlock the databases. When the database is locked, read operations are permitted, while write operations are not. Locking the databases starts a timer that shows how long the database has been locked, and the button changes to Unlock database.

    Caution: Lock & deploy overwrites content on the destination server and cannot be undone. Make sure to double check the direction of the deployment with the selected servers.

  • Lock & deploy << | >>: Use lock and deploy to lock the databases for changes and deploy any elements required to bring the two servers into identical states. The arrows indicate if the deployment is from the right server to the left server (<<), or from left to right (>>). When clicked, a confirmation dialog appears, where you must confirm the deployment direction. A progress bar with an estimated time for the deployment is displayed during the process.

• Table Details (3): Double click a table in the Left or Right table panes to open a detailed view of the selected table in the Details pane. Multiple tables can be opened, and are added as separate tabs within the pane. Right clicking a table in either pane opens a context menu from which data can be loaded. Select Show differences to load only the entries that differ in the Details pane, or Show all to load all entries in the selected table. Select Lock & deploy all to lock the database on both servers, and deploy all tables from the selected server.

Multiple Graphic Hubs and Viz Pilot Data

The Pilot differences dialog in the Graphic Hub Manager can be used to perform a manual backup of one server to another. However, merging the database content is not possible. The data is always overwritten on the destination server, to ensure that the content is identical to the source.

1. Log on to both the active and backup Graphic Hub servers.

2. Open the Pilot differences dialog and select these servers in the overview section.

3. Check for differences and deploy in the correct direction for backing up the data. Only the Viz Pilot data that has been changed after the latest backup is deployed.

Since GH Manager 5.2.0 and Deploy Agent 2.2.0, it is possible to automate Viz Pilot data backups via time-steered deploy tasks. Create a Viz Pilot deploy task via one of the following workflows in GH Manager:

• Either navigate to Pilot > Create Pilot deploy task... to configure a deploy task which only deploys Viz Pilot data.
  This option can also be used in addition to an existing real time file deploy task, so that there are regular updates of the Viz Pilot data plus real time updates of the file data on the destination server.

• Or create a file-based deploy task as usual and check the Sync Pilot data option in the task's Schedule configuration window. Use this option if it is preferred to have a copy of the data where the Viz Pilot and file data are widely consistent at a certain point in time (for example, for backup purposes).

  Note: In this case, there must not be any parallel real time file deploy task running between the two servers, as then conflicts occur which cause the tasks to fail.

Viz Pilot Data Backup Solution

Using Graphic Hub Manager in Graphic Hub 3, Viz Pilot data can be backed up manually to a Graphic Hub server in 5/4 Free or Multiuser mode. Using Graphic Hub Manager and Graphic Hub Deploy Agent in Graphic Hub 3.2, Viz Pilot data can also be backed up automatically via Viz Pilot deploy tasks as outlined in the previous section. On the backup server, the Graphic Hub Terminal can then be used as a tool for creating full or incremental backups of the underlying data directory on Graphic Hub, using a scheduled shutdown task with backup after shutdown and server restart.

See Also

• Key Features and Workflow of Graphic Hub 3 as Viz Pilot Backend System

• Graphic Hub Manager

• Graphic Hub Terminal

• Graphic Hub Deploy Agent